It looks like FTG scooped me by posting this same article two weeks ago. I’m not sure how I missed it, but maybe I should start cutting the prozacs in half. I’m going to leave my post here anyway, because repetition is the best way to learn a subject, and because my commentary is wittier and funnier than FTG’s.

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Here is a story out of Sacramento, California; where a District Court judge ruled in favor of Barry Hazle, a parolee who was forced to attend a 12-step rehabilitation program. I noticed that this article is in the ‘Religion’ section. Maybe one of our AA readers should write the Sacramento Bee, and explain to them how AA articles should be in the ‘Spiritual’ part of their newspaper:

As a condition of his release, Hazle was ordered to attend a 90-day, inpatient drug treatment program. He agreed to the program but even before his release told prison officials he wanted to be sent to a “treatment facility that did not contain religious components,” federal court papers state.

Instead, he was assigned to the Empire Recovery Center in Redding, a 12-step program pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous and featuring a strong religious overtone, utilizing references to God and “a higher power.”

When Hazle asked to be moved to a program that was not faith-based, he was told – wrongly, as it turned out – there was none in Northern California.

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As an aside, I noticed that the Empire Recovery Center, where this parolee was sent, is hosting their annual Serenity Open golf tournament. They are soliciting “hole sponsors”. No doubt they will be getting some a good response from this request from AAs who mistakenly think this is a solicitation for 13th steppers.